30
Although Nabis had been greatly alarmed at the first arrival of the Roman fleet, and the surrender of the towns on the sea-coast, yet, as long as Gythium was held by his troops he had quieted his apprehensions with that scanty hope; but when he heard that Gythium, too, was given up to the Romans, and saw that he had no room for any kind of hope on the land, where every place round was in the hands of the enemy, and that he was totally excluded from the sea, he considered that he must yield to fortune. He first sent a messenger into the Roman camp, to learn whether permission would be given to send ambassadors. This being consented to, Pythagoras came to the general, with no other commission than to propose a conference between that commander and the tyrant. A council was summoned on the proposal, and every one present agreeing in opinion that a conference should be granted, a time and place were appointed. They came, with moderate escorts, to some hills in the interjacent ground; and leaving their cohorts there, in posts open to the view of both parties, they went down to the place of meeting; Nabis attended by a select party of his body-guards; Quinctius by his brother, king Eumenes, Sosilaus, the Rhodian, Aristaenus, praetor of the Achaeans, and a few military tribunes.
31
Then the tyrant, having the choice given him either to speak first or to listen, began thus: "Titus Quinctius, and you who are present, if I could collect from my own reflections the reason of your having either declared or actually made war against me, I should have waited in silence the issue of my destiny. But in the present state of things, I could not repress my desire of knowing, before I am ruined, the cause for which my ruin is resolved on. And in truth, if you were such men as the Carthaginians are represented to be,--men who considered the obligation of faith, pledged in alliances, as in no degree sacred, I should not wonder if you were the less scrupulous with respect to your conduct towards me. But, instead of that, when I look at you, I perceive that you are Romans: men who allow treaties to be the most solemn of religious acts, and faith, pledged therein, the strongest of human ties. Then, when I look back at myself, I am confident I am one who, as a member of the community, am, in common with the rest of the Lacedaemonians, included in a treaty subsisting with you, of very ancient date; and likewise have, lately, during the war with Philip, concluded anew, in my own name, a personal friendship and alliance with you. But it appears I have violated and cancelled that treaty, by holding possession of the city of Argos. In what manner shall I defend this? By the consideration of the fact, or of the time. The consideration of the fact furnishes me with a twofold defence: for, in the first place, in consequence of an invitation from the inhabitants themselves, and of their voluntary act of surrender, I accepted the possession of that city, and did not seize it by force. In the next place, I accepted it, when the city was in league with Philip, not in alliance with you. Then the consideration of the time acquits me, inasmuch as when I was in actual possession of Argos, the alliance was entered into between you and me, and you stipulated that I should send you aid against Philip, not that I should withdraw my garrison from that city. In this dispute, therefore, so far as it relates to Argos, I have unquestionably the advantage, both from the equity of the proceeding, as I gained possession of a city which belonged not to you, but to your enemy; and as I gained it by its own voluntary act, and not by forcible compulsion; and also from your own acknowledgment; since, in the articles of our alliance, you left Argos to me. But then, the name of tyrant, and my conduct, are strong objections against me: that I call forth slaves to a state of freedom; that I carry out the indigent part of the populace, and give them settlements in lands. With respect to the title by which I am styled, I can answer thus: That, let me be what I may, I am the same now that I was at the time when you yourself, Titus Quinctius, concluded an alliance with me. I remember, that I was then styled king by you; now, I see, I am called tyrant. If, therefore, I had since altered the style of my office, I might have an account to render of my fickleness: as you choose to alter it, that account should be rendered by you. As to what relates to the augmenting the number of the populace, by giving liberty to slaves, and the distribution of lands to the needy; on this head, too, I might defend myself by a reference to time: These measures, of what complexion soever they are, I had practised before you formed friendship with me, and received my aid in the war against Philip. But, if I did these same things, at this moment, I would not say to you, how did I thereby injure you, or violate the friendship subsisting between us? but that, in so doing, I acted agreeably to the practice and institutions of my ancestors. Do not estimate what is done at Lacedaemon by the standard of your own laws and constitution. There is no necessity for comparing particular institutions: you are guided in your choice of a horseman, by the quantity of his property; in your choice of a foot soldier, by the quantity of his property; and your plan is, that a few should abound in wealth, and that the body of the people should be in subjection to them. Our lawgiver did not choose that the administration of government should be in the hands of a few, such as you call a senate; or that this or that order of citizens should have a superiority over the rest: but he considered that, by equalizing the property and dignity of all, he should multiply the number of those who were to bear arms for their country. I acknowledge that I have enlarged on these matters, beyond what consists with the conciseness customary with my countrymen, and that the sum of the whole might be comprised in few words: that, since I first commenced a friendship with you, I have given you no just cause to repent it."
32
The Roman general answered: "We never contracted any friendship or alliance with you, but with Pelops, the right and lawful king of Lacedaemon: whose authority, while the Carthaginian, Gallic, and other wars, succeeding one another, kept us constantly employed, the tyrants, who after him held Lacedaemon under forced subjection, usurped into their own hands, as did you also during the late war with Macedonia. For what could be less fitting, than that we, who were waging war against Philip, in favour of the liberty of Greece, should contract friendship with a tyrant, and a tyrant the most cruel and violent towards his subjects that ever existed? But, even supposing that you had not either seized or held Argos by iniquitous means, it would be incumbent on us, when we are giving liberty to all Greece, to reinstate Lacedaemon also in its ancient freedom, and the enjoyment of its own laws, which you just now spoke of, as if you were a rival of Lycurgus. Shall we take pains to make Philip's garrisons evacuate Tassus and Bargylii; and shall we leave Lacedaemon and Argos, those two most illustrious cities, formerly the lights of Greece, under your feet, that their continuance in bondage may tarnish our title of deliverers of Greece? But the Argives took part with Philip: we excuse you from taking any concern in that cause, so that you need not be angry with them on our behalf. We have received sufficient proof, that the guilt of that proceeding is chargeable on two only, or, at most, three persons, and not on the state; just, indeed, as in the case of the invitation given to you and to your army, and your reception into the citadel, not one step was taken by public authority. We know, that the Thessalians, Phocians, and Locrians, with unanimous consent, joined in espousing the cause of Philip; yet we have given liberty to them in common with the rest of Greece. How then can you suppose we shall conduct ourselves towards the Argives, who are acquitted of having publicly authorized misconduct? You said, that your inviting slaves to liberty, and the distribution of lands among the indigent, were objected to you as crimes; and crimes, surely, they are, of no small magnitude. But what are they in comparison with those atrocious deeds, that are daily perpetrated by you and your adherents, in continual succession? Show us a free assembly of the people, either at Argos or Lacedaemon, if you wish to hear a true recital of the crimes of the most abandoned tyranny. To omit all other instances of older date, what a massacre did your son-in-law, Pythagoras, make at Argos almost before my eyes! What another did you yourself perpetrate, when I was nearly within the confines of the Lacedaemonians! Now, give orders, that the persons whom you took out of the midst of an assembly, and committed to prison, after declaring, in the hearing of all your countrymen, that you would keep them in custody, be produced in their chains, that their wretched parents may know that those are alive, for whom, under a false impression, they are mourning. Well, but you say, though all these things were so, Romans, how do they concern you? Can you say this to the deliverers of Greece; to people who crossed the sea, and have maintained a war on sea and land, to effect its deliverance? Still you tell us, you have not directly violated the alliance, or the friendship established between us. How many instances must I produce of your having done so? But I will not go into long detail; I will bring the matter to a short issue. By what acts is friendship violated? Most effectually by these two: by treating our friends as foes; and by uniting yourself with our enemies. Each of these has been done by you. For Messene, which had been united to us in friendship, by one and the same bond of alliance with Lacedaemon, you, while professing yourself our ally, reduced to subjection by force of arms, though you knew it was in alliance with us; and you contracted with Philip, our professed enemy, not only an alliance, but even an affinity, through the intervention of his general, Philocles: and waging actual war against us, with your piratical ships, you made the sea round Malea unsafe, and you captured and slew more Roman citizens almost than Philip himself; and to our ships conveying provisions to our armies the coast of Macedonia itself was less dangerous, than the promontory of Malea. Cease, therefore, to vaunt your good faith, and the obligations of treaties; and, dropping a popular style of discourse, speak as a tyrant, and as an enemy."
33
Aristaenus then began, at first to advise, and afterwards even to beseech Nabis, while it was yet in his power, and he had the opportunity, to consider what was best for himself and his interests. He then mentioned the names of several tyrants in the neighbouring states who had resigned their authority, and restored liberty to their people, and afterwards spent among their fellow citizens not only a secure but an honoured old age. These observations having been reciprocally made and listened to, the approach of night broke up the conference. Next day Nabis said, that he was willing to cede Argos, and withdraw his garrison, since such was the desire of the Romans, and to deliver up the prisoners and deserters; and if they demanded any thing further, he requested that they would set it down in writing, that he might deliberate on it with his friends. Thus the tyrant gained time for consultation; and Quinctius also, on his part, called a council, to which he summoned the chiefs of the allies. The greatest part were of opinion, that "they ought to persevere in the war, and that the tyrant should be altogether got rid of; otherwise the liberty of Greece would never be secure. That it would have been much better never to have entered on the war than to drop it after it was begun; for this would be a kind of approbation of his tyrannical usurpation, and which would establish him more firmly, as giving the countenance of the Roman people to his ill-acquired authority, and that he would quickly spirit up many in other states to plot against the liberty of their countrymen." The wishes of the general himself tended rather to peace; for he saw that, as the enemy was shut up in the town, nothing remained but a siege, and that must be very tedious. For it was not Gythium that they must besiege, though even that place had been gained by capitulation, not by assault; but Lacedaemon, a city most powerful in men and arms. The only hope which they could have formed was, that, on the first approach of their army, dissensions and insurrections might have been raised within: but, though the standards had been seen to advance almost to the gates, not one person had stirred. To this he added, that "Villius the ambassador, returning from Antiochus, brought intelligence, that the peace was an unsound one; and that the king had come over into Europe with a much more powerful armament by sea and land than before. Now, if the army should be engaged in the siege of Lacedaemon, with what other forces could the war be maintained against a king of his great power and strength?" These arguments he urged openly; but beneath all this there lay a concealed anxiety lest one of the new consuls should be appointed to the province of Greece; and then the honour of terminating the war, in which he had proceeded so far, must be yielded to a successor.
34
Finding that he could not, by opposition, make any alteration in the sentiments of the allies, by pretending to go over to their opinion, he led them all into a concurrence in his plan. "Be it so," said he, "and may success attend us: let us lay siege to Lacedaemon, since that is your choice. However, as a business so slow in its progress, as you know the besieging of cities to be, very often wears out the patience of the besiegers sooner than that of the besieged, you ought at once to make up your minds to this, that we must pass the winter under the walls of Lacedaemon. If this delay involved only toil and danger, I would recommend to you to prepare your minds and bodies to support these. But, in the present case, vast expenses also will be requisite for the construction of works, for machines and engines, sufficient for the siege of so great a city, and for procuring stores of provisions for the winter to serve you and us: therefore, to prevent your being suddenly disconcerted, or shamefully deserting an enterprise which you had engaged in, I think it will be necessary for you to write home to your respective states, and learn what degree of spirit and of strength each possesses. Of auxiliary troops I have a sufficient number, and to spare; but the more numerous we are, the more numerous will be our wants. The country of the enemy has nothing left but the naked soil. Besides, the winter is at hand, which will render it difficult to convey what we may stand in need of from distant places." This speech first turned their thoughts to the domestic evils prevailing in their several states; the indolence of those who remained at home; the envy and misrepresentations to which those who were serving abroad were liable; that a state of freedom was a difficult one in which to procure unanimity; the want of public funds, and people's backwardness to contribute out of their private property. Their inclinations being thus suddenly changed, they gave full power to the general, to do whatever he judged conducive to the general interest of the Roman people and their allies.
35
Then Quinctius, consulting only his lieutenant-generals and military tribunes, drew up the following conditions on which peace should be made with the tyrant: "That there should be a suspension of arms for six months, between Nabis on one part, and the Romans, king Eumenes, and the Rhodians on the other. That Titus Quinctius and Nabis should immediately send ambassadors to Rome, in order that the peace might be ratified by authority of the senate. That, whatever day a written copy of these conditions should be delivered to Nabis, on that day should the armistice commence; and, within ten days after, his garrisons should be withdrawn from Argos, and all other towns in the territory of the Argives; all which towns should be entirely evacuated, restored to freedom, and delivered to the Romans. That no slave, whether belonging to the king, the public, or a private person, be removed out of any of them; and if any had been removed before, that they be faithfully restored to their owners. That he should return the ships, which he had taken from the maritime states; and should not have any other than two barks; and these to be navigated with no more than sixteen oars. That he should restore to all the states in alliance with the Roman people, the prisoners and deserters in his hands; and to the Messenians, all the effects that could be discovered, and which their possessors could own. That he should, likewise, restore to the exiled Lacedaemonians their children, and their wives, who chose to follow their husbands; provided that no woman should be obliged, against her will, to go with her husband into exile. That such of the mercenary soldiers of Nabis as had deserted him, and gone either to their own countries or to the Romans, should have all their effects faithfully returned to them. That he should hold possession of no city in the island of Crete; and that such as were then in his possession should be given up to the Romans. That he should not form any alliance, or wage war, with any of the Cretan states, or with any other. That he should withdraw all his garrisons from those cities, which he should give up, and which had put themselves, and their country, under the dominion and protection of the Roman people; and should take care that, in future, he should restrain both himself and his subjects from molesting them. That he should not build any town or fort in his own, or any other territory. That, to secure the performance of these conditions, he should give five hostages, such as the Roman general should choose, and among them his own son: and should pay, at present, one hundred talents of silver; and fifty talents, annually, for eight years."
36
These articles were put into writing, and sent into Lacedaemon, the camp having been removed, and brought nearer to the town. The tyrant saw nothing in them that gave him much satisfaction, excepting that, beyond his hopes, no mention had been made of bringing back the exiles. But what mortified him most of all, was, the depriving him of his shipping, and of the maritime towns: for the sea had been a source of great profit to him; his piratical vessels having continually infested the whole coast from the promontory of Malea. Besides, he found in the young men of those towns recruits for his army, who made by far the best of his soldiers. Though he discussed those conditions in private with his confidential friends, yet, as the ministers in the courts of kings, faithless in other respects, are particularly so with respect to the concealing of secrets, rumour soon made them all public. The public, in general, expressed not so great a disapprobation of the whole of the terms, as did individuals, of the articles particularly affecting themselves. Those who had the wives of the exiles in marriage, or had possessed themselves of any of their property, were provoked, as if they were to lose what was their own, and not to make restitution of what belonged to others. The slaves, who had been set at liberty by the tyrant, perceived plainly, not only that their enfranchisement would be annulled, but that their servitude would be much more severe than it had been before, when they should be again put under the power of their incensed masters. The mercenary soldiers were dissatisfied, because, in consequence of a peace, their pay would cease; and they knew also, that they could not return among their own countrymen, who detested not tyrants more than they did their abettors.
37
They at first spoke of these matters, in their circles, with murmurs of discontent; and afterwards, suddenly ran to arms. From which tumultuous proceeding, the tyrant perceived that the passions of the multitude were of themselves sufficiently inflamed, and immediately ordered a general assembly to be summoned. Here he explained to them the terms which the Romans strove to impose, to which he falsely added others, more severe and humiliating. While, on the mention of each particular, sometimes the whole assembly, sometimes different parties, raised a shout of disapprobation, he asked them, "What answer they wished him to give; or what they would have him do?" On which all, as it were with one voice, cried out, "To give no answer, to continue the war;" and they began, as is common with a multitude, every one to encourage the rest, to keep up their spirits, and cherish good hopes, observing, that "fortune favours the brave." Animated by these expressions, the tyrant assured them, that Antiochus, and the Aetolians, would come to their assistance; and that he had, in the mean time, resources abundantly sufficient for the maintenance of a siege. The very mention of peace had vanished from the minds of all, and unable to contain themselves longer in quiet, they ran out in parties against the advanced guards of the enemy. The sally of these few skirmishers, and the weapons which they threw, immediately removed all doubt from the Romans that the war was to continue. During the four following days, several slight encounters took place, at first without any decisive result; but, on the fifth day after, in a kind of regular engagement, the Lacedaemonians were beaten back into the town, in such a panic, that several Roman soldiers, pressing close on the rear of the fugitives, entered the city through open spaces, not secured with a wall, of which, at that time, there were several.
38
Then Quinctius, having, by this repulse, effectually checked the sallies of the enemy, and being fully convinced that he had now no alternative, but must besiege the city, sent persons to bring up all the marine forces from Gythium; and, in the mean time, rode himself, with some military tribunes, round the walls, to take a view of the situation of the place. In former times, Sparta had no wall; of late, the tyrants had built walls in the places where the ground Was open and level; but the higher places, and those more difficult of access, they secured by placing guards of soldiers instead of fortifications. When he had sufficiently examined every circumstance, having resolved on making a general assault, he surrounded the city with all his forces, the number of which, Romans and allies, horse and foot, naval and land forces, all together, amounted to fifty thousand men. Some brought scaling-ladders, some fire-brands, some other matters, wherewith they might not only assail the enemy, but strike terror. The orders were, that on raising the shout, all should advance at once, in order that the Lacedaemonians, being alarmed at the same time in every quarter, might be at a loss where, first, to make head, or whither to bring aid. The main force of his army he formed in three divisions, and ordered one to attack on the side of the Phoebeum, another on that of the Dictynneum, and the third near a place called Heptagoniae, all which are open places without walls. Though surrounded on all sides by such a violent alarm, the tyrant, at first, attentive to every sudden shout and hasty message, either ran up himself, or sent others, wherever the greatest danger pressed; but, afterwards, he was so stunned by the horror and confusion that prevailed all around, as to become incapable either of giving proper directions, or of hearing what was said, and to lose, not only his judgment, but almost his reason.
39
For some time the Lacedaemonians maintained their ground against the Romans, in the narrow passes; and three armies, on each side, fought, at one time, in different places. Afterwards, when the heat of the contest increased, the contest was, by no means, an equal one: for the Lacedaemonians fought with missile arms, against which the Roman soldiers, by means of their large shields, easily defended themselves, and many of their blows either missed, or were very weak; for, the narrowness of the place causing them to be closely crowded together, they neither had room to discharge their weapons with a previous run, which gives great force to them, nor clear and steady footing while they made their throw Of those, therefore, discharged against the front of the Romans, none pierced their bodies, few even their shields; but several were wounded by those who surrounded them from higher places. And presently, when they advanced a little, they were hurt unawares, both with javelins, and tiles also thrown from the tops of the houses. On this they raised their shields over their heads; and joining them so close together as to leave no room for injury from such random casts, or even for the insertion of a javelin, by a hand within reach, they pressed forward under cover of this tortoise fence. For some time the narrow streets, being thronged with a multitude of their own soldiers, and also of the enemy, considerably retarded the progress of the Romans; but when once, by gradually pushing back the enemy, they gained the wider streets of the city, the impetuosity of their attack could no longer be withstood. While the Lacedaemonians, having turned their backs, fled precipitately to the higher places, Nabis, being utterly confounded, as if the town were already taken, began to look about for a way to make his escape. Pythagoras, while in other respects he displayed the spirit and conduct of a general, was now the sole means of saving the city from being taken. For he ordered the buildings nearest to the wall to be set on fire; and these being instantly in a blaze, those who, on another occasion, would have brought help to extinguish the fire, now helping to increase it, the roofs tumbled on the Romans; and not only fragments of the tiles, but also the half-burned timber, reached the soldiers: the flames spread wide, and the smoke caused a degree of terror even greater than the danger. In consequence, the Romans who were without the city, and were just then making the principal attack, retired from the wall; and those who were within, fearing lest the fire, rising behind them, should put it out of their power to rejoin the rest of the army, began to retreat. Whereupon Quinctius, seeing how matters stood, ordered a general retreat to be sounded.--Thus, being at length recalled from a city which they had nearly taken, they returned to their camp.
40
Quinctius, conceiving greater hopes from the fears of the enemy than from the immediate effect of his operations, kept them in a continual alarm during the three succeeding days; sometimes harassing them with assaults, sometimes enclosing several places with works, so as to leave no passage open for flight. These menaces had such an effect on the tyrant that he again sent Pythagoras to solicit peace. Quinctius, at first, rejected him with disdain, ordering him to quit the camp; but afterwards, on his suppliant entreaties, and throwing himself at his feet, he admitted him to an audience. The purport of his discourse, at first, was, an offer of implicit submission to the will of the Romans; but this availed nothing, being considered as nugatory and indecisive. The business was, at length, brought to this issue, that a truce should be made on the conditions delivered in writing a few days before, and the money and hostages were accordingly received. While the tyrant was kept shut up by the siege, the Argives, receiving frequent accounts, one after another, that Lacedaemon was on the point of being taken, and having themselves resumed courage on the departure of Pythagoras, with the strongest part of his garrison, looked now with contempt on the small number remaining in the citadel; and, being headed by a person named Archippus, drove the garrison out. They gave Timocrates, of Pellene, leave to retire, with solemn assurance of sparing his life, in consideration of the mildness which he had shown in his government. In the midst of this rejoicing, Quinctius arrived, after having granted peace to the tyrant, dismissed Eumenes and the Rhodians from Lacedaemon, and sent back his brother, Lucius Quinctius, to the fleet.
41
The Nemaean games, the most celebrated of all the festivals, and their most splendid public spectacle, had been omitted, at the regular time, on account of the disasters of the war: the state now, in the fulness of their joy, ordered them to be celebrated on the arrival of the Roman general and his army; and appointed the general, himself, president of the games. There were many circumstances which heightened their happiness: their countrymen, whom Pythagoras, lately, and, before that, Nabis, had carried away, were brought home from Lacedaemon; those who on the discovery of the conspiracy by Pythagoras, and when the massacre was already begun, had fled from home, now returned; they saw their liberty restored, after a long interval, and beheld, in their city, the Romans, the authors of its restoration, whose only view, in making war on the tyrant, was the support of their interest. The freedom of the Argives was, also, solemnly announced, by the voice of a herald, on the very day of the Nemaean games. Whatever pleasure the Achaeans felt on Argos being reinstated in the general council of Achaia, it was, in a great measure, alloyed by Lacedaemon being left in slavery, and the tyrant close at their side. As to the Aetolians, they loudly railed at that measure in every meeting. They remarked, that "the war with Philip was not ended until he evacuated all the cities of Greece. But Lacedaemon was left to the tyrant, while the lawful king, who had been, at the time, in the Roman camp, and others, the noblest of the citizens, must live in exile: so that the Roman nation was become a partisan of Nabis in his tyranny." Quinctius led back his army to Elatia, whence he had set out to the Spartan war. Some writers say, that the tyrant's method of carrying on hostilities was not by sallies from the city, but that he encamped in the face of the Romans; and that, after he had declined fighting a long time, waiting for succours from the Aetolians, he was forced to come to an engagement, by an attack which the Romans made on his foragers, when, being defeated in that battle, and beaten out of his camp, he sued for peace, after fifteen thousand of his men had been killed, and more than four thousand made prisoners.
42
Nearly at the same time, arrived at Rome a letter from Titus Quinctius, with an account of his proceedings at Lacedaemon; and another, out of Spain, from Marcus Porcius, the consul; whereupon the senate decreed a supplication, for three days, in the name of each. The other consul, Lucius Valerius, as his province had remained quiet since the defeat of the Boians at the wood of Litana, came home to Rome to hold the elections. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, a second time, and Tiberius Sempronius Longus, were elected consuls. The fathers of these two had been consuls in the first year of the second Punic war. The election of praetors was then held, and the choice fell on Publius Cornelius Scipio, two Cneius Corneliuses, Merenda and Blasio, Cneius Domitius Aenobarbus, Sextus Digitius, and Titus Juvencius Thalna. As soon as the elections were finished, the consul returned to his province. The inhabitants of Ferentinum, this year, laid claim to a privilege unheard of before; that Latins, giving in their names for a Roman colony, should be deemed citizens of Rome. Some colonists, who had given in their names for Puteoli, Salernum, and Buxentum, assumed, on that ground, the character of Roman citizens; but the senate determined that they were not.
43
In the beginning of the year, wherein Publius Scipio Africanus, a second time, and Tiberius Sempronius Longus were consuls, two ambassadors from the tyrant Nabis came to Rome. The senate gave them audience in the temple of Apollo, outside the city. They entreated that a peace might be concluded on the terms settled with Quinctius, and obtained their request. When the question was put concerning the provinces, the majority of the senate were of opinion, that as the wars in Spain and Macedonia were at an end, Italy should be the province of both the consuls; but Scipio contended that one consul was sufficient for Italy, and that Macedonia ought to be decreed to the other; that "there was every reason to apprehend a dangerous war with Antiochus, for he had already, of his own accord, come into Europe; and how did they suppose he would act in future, when he should be encouraged to a war, on one hand, by the Aetolians, avowed enemies of their state, and stimulated, on the other, by Hannibal, a general famous for his victories over the Romans?" While the consular provinces were in dispute, the praetors cast lots for theirs. The city jurisdiction fell to Cneius Domitius; the foreign, to Titus Juvencius: Farther Spain, to Publius Cornelius; Hither Spain, to Sextus Digitius; Sicily, to Cneius Cornelius Blasio; Sardinia, to Cneius Cornelius Merenda. It was resolved, that no new army should be sent into Macedonia, but that the one which was there should be brought home to Italy by Quinctius, and disbanded; that the army which was in Spain, under Marcus Porcius Cato, should likewise be disbanded; that Italy should be the province of both the consuls, and that they should raise two city legions; so that, after the disbanding of the armies, mentioned in the resolution of the senate, there should be in all eight Roman legions.
44
A sacred spring had been celebrated, in the preceding year, during the consulate of Marcus Porcius and Lucius Valerius; but Publius Licinius, one of the pontiffs, having made a report, first, to the college of pontiffs, and afterwards, under the sanction of the college, to the senate, that it had not been duly performed, they resolved, that it should be celebrated anew, under the direction of the pontiffs; and that the great games, vowed together with it, should be exhibited at the same expense which was customary; that the sacred spring should be deemed to comprehend all the cattle born between the calends of March and the day preceding the calends of May, in the year of the consulate of Publius Cornelius Scipio and Tiberius Sempronius Longus. Then followed the election of censors. Sextus Aelius Paetus, and Caius Cornelius Cethegus, being created censors, named as prince of the senate the consul Publius Scipio, whom the former censors likewise had appointed. They passed by only three senators in the whole, none of whom had enjoyed the honour of a curule office. They obtained, on another account, the highest degree of credit with that body; for, at the celebration of the Roman games, they ordered the curule aediles to set apart places for the senators, distinct from those of the people, whereas, hitherto, all the spectators used to sit promiscuously. Of the knights, also, very few were deprived of their horses; nor was severity shown towards any rank of men. The gallery of the temple of Liberty, and the Villa Publica, were repaired and enlarged by the same censors. The sacred spring, and the votive games, were celebrated, pursuant to the vow of Servius Sulpicius Galba, when consul. While every one's thoughts were engaged by the shows then exhibited, Quintus Pleminius, who, for the many crimes against gods and men committed by him at Locri, had been thrown into prison, procured men who were to set fire by night to several parts of the city at once, in order that, while the town was thrown into consternation by this nocturnal disturbance, the prison might be broken open. But this plot was disclosed by some of the accomplices, and the affair was laid before the senate. Pleminius was thrown into a lower dungeon, and there put to death.
45
In this year colonies of Roman citizens were settled at Puteoli, Vulturnum, and Liternum; three hundred men in each place. Colonies of Roman citizens were likewise established at Salernum and Buxentum. The lands allotted to them had formerly belonged to the Campanians. Tiberius Sempronius Longus, who was then consul, Marcus Servilius, and Quintus Minucius Thermus, were the triumviri who settled the colony. Other commissioners also, Decius Junius Brutus, Marcus Baebius Tamphilus, and Marcus Helvius, led a colony of Roman citizens to Sipontum, into a district which had belonged to the Arpinians. To Tempsa, likewise, and to Croto, colonies of Roman citizens were led out. The lands of Tempsa had been taken from the Bruttians, who had formerly expelled the Greeks from them. Croto was possessed by Greeks. In ordering these establishments, there were named, for Croto,--Cneius Octavius, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, and Caius Pletorius; for Tempsa,--Lucius Cornelius Merula, and Caius Salonius. Several prodigies were observed at Rome that year, and others reported, from other places. In the forum, comitium, and Capitol, drops of blood were seen, and several showers of earth fell, and the head of Vulcan was surrounded with a blaze of fire. It was reported that a stream of milk ran in the river at Interamna; that, in some reputable families at Ariminum, children were born without eyes and nose; and one, in the territory of Picenum, that had neither hands nor feet. These prodigies were expiated according to an order of the pontiffs; and the nine days' festival was celebrated, because the Hadrians had sent intelligence that a shower of stones had fallen in their fields.
46
In Gaul, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, proconsul, in a pitched battle near Mediolanum, completely overthrew the Insubrian Gauls, and the Boians; who, under the command of Dorulacus, had crossed the Po, to rouse the Insubrians to arms. Ten thousand of the enemy were slain. About this time his colleague, Marcus Porcius Cato, triumphed over Spain. He carried in the procession twenty-five thousand pounds' weight of unwrought silver, one hundred and three thousand silver denarii,[36] five hundred and forty of Oscan silver,[37] and one thousand four hundred pounds' weight of gold. Out of the booty, he distributed to each of his soldiers two hundred and seventyasses;[38] and three times that amount to each horseman. Tiberius Sempronius, consul, proceeding to his province, led his legions, first, into the territory of the Boians. At this time Boiorix their chieftain, with his two brothers, after having drawn out the whole nation into the field to renew the war, pitched his camp in the open country, that it might be evident that he was prepared to fight in case the enemy should pass the frontiers. When the consul understood what a numerous force and what a degree of resolution the enemy had, he sent an express to his colleague, requesting him, "if he thought proper, to hasten to join him;" adding, that "he would act on the defensive, and defer engaging in battle, until his arrival." The same reason which made the consul wish to decline an action, induced the Gauls, whose spirits were raised by the backwardness of their antagonists, to bring it on as soon as possible, that they might finish the affair before the two consuls should unite their forces. However, during two days, they did nothing more than stand in readiness for battle, if any should come out against them. On the third, they advanced furiously to the rampart, and assaulted the camp on every side at once. The consul immediately ordered his men to take arms, and kept them quiet, under arms, for some time; both to add to the foolish confidence of the enemy, and to arrange his troops at the gates, through which each party was to sally out. The two legions were ordered to march by the two principal gates; but, in the very pass of the gates, the Gauls opposed them in such close bodies as to stop up the way. The fight was maintained a long time in these narrow passes; nor were their hands or swords much employed in the business, but pushing with their shields and bodies, they pressed against each other, the Romans struggling to force their standards beyond the gates, the Gauls, to break into the camp, or, at least, to hinder the Romans from issuing forth. However, neither party could make the least impression on the other, until Quintus Victorius, a first centurion, and Caius Atinius, a military tribune, the former of the second, the latter of the fourth legion, had taken a course often tried in desperate conflicts; snatching the standards from the officers who carried them, and throwing them among the enemy. In the struggle to recover the standards, the men of the second legion first made their way out of the gate.
47
These were now fighting on the outside of the rampart, the fourth legion still entangled in the gate, when a new alarm arose on the opposite side of the camp. The Gauls had broke in by the Quaestorian gate, and had slain the quaestor, Lucius Postumius, surnamed Tympanus, with Marcus Atinius and Publius Sempronius, praefects of the allies, who made an obstinate resistance; and also, near two hundred soldiers. The camp in that part had been taken, when a cohort of those who are called Extraordinaries, having been sent by the consul to defend the Quaestorian gate, killed some who had got within the rampart, drove out the rest, and opposed others who were attempting to break in. About the same time, the fourth legion, and two cohorts of Extraordinaries, burst out of the gate; and thus there were three battles, in different places, round the camp; while the various kinds of shouts raised by them, called off the attention of the combatants from their own immediate conflict to the uncertain casualties which threatened their friends. The battle was maintained until mid-day with equal strength, and with nearly equal hopes. At length, the fatigue and heat so far got the better of the soft relaxed bodies of the Gauls, who are incapable of enduring thirst, as to make most of them give up the fight; and the few who stood their ground, were attacked by the Romans, routed, and driven to their camp. The consul then gave the signal for retreat, on which the greater part retired; but some, eager to continue the fight, and hoping to get possession of the camp, pressed forward to the rampart, on which the Gauls, despising their small number, rushed out in a body. The Romans were then routed in turn, and compelled, by their own fear and dismay, to retreat to their camp, which they had refused to do at the command of their general. Thus now flight and now victory alternated on both sides. The Gauls, however, had eleven thousand killed, the Romans but five thousand. The Gauls retreated into the heart of their country, and the consul led his legions to Placentia. Some writers say, that Scipio, after joining his forces to those of his colleague, overran and plundered the country of the Boians and Ligurians, as far as the woods and marshes suffered him to proceed; others, that, without having effected any thing material, he returned to Rome to hold the elections.
48
Titus Quinctius passed the entire winter season of this year at Elatia, where he had established the winter quarters of his army, in adjusting political arrangements, and reversing the measures which had been introduced in the several states under the arbitrary domination of Philip and his deputies, who crushed the rights and liberties of others, in order to augment the power of those who formed a faction in their favour. Early in the spring he came to Corinth, where he had summoned a general convention. Ambassadors having attended from every one of the states, so as to form a numerous assembly, he addressed them in a long speech, in which, beginning from the first commencement of friendship between the Romans and the nation of the Greeks, he enumerated the proceedings of the commanders who had been in Macedonia before him, and likewise his own. His whole narration was heard with the warmest approbation, except when he came to make mention of Nabis; and then they expressed their opinion, that it was utterly inconsistent with the character of the deliverer of Greece to have left seated, in the centre of one of its most respectable states, a tyrant, who was not only insupportable to his own country, but a terror to all the states in his neighbourhood. Whereupon Quinctius, not unacquainted with this tendency of their feelings, freely acknowledged, that "if the business could have been accomplished without the entire destruction of Lacedaemon, no mention of peace with the tyrant ought ever to have been listened to; but that, when it was not possible to crush him otherwise than by the utter ruin of this most important city, it was judged more eligible to leave the tyrant in a state of debility, stripped of almost every kind of power to do injury to any, than to suffer the city, which must have perished in the very process of its delivery being effectuated, to sink under remedies too violent for it to support."
49
To the recital of matters past, he subjoined, that "his intention was to depart shortly for Italy, and to carry with him all his troops; that they should hear, within ten days, of the garrisons having evacuated Demetrias; and that Chalcis, the citadel of Corinth, should be before their own eyes evacuated to the Achaeans: that all the world might know whose habit it was to deceive, that of the Romans or the Aetolians, who had spread insinuations, that the cause of liberty had been unwisely intrusted to the Romans, and that they had only received as their masters the Romans in exchange for the Macedonians. But they were men who never scrupled what they either said or did. The rest of the nations he advised to form their estimate of friends from deeds, not from words; and to satisfy themselves whom they ought to trust, and against whom they ought to be on their guard; to use their liberty with moderation: for, when regulated by prudence, it was productive of happiness both to individuals and to states; but, when pushed to excess, it became not only obnoxious to others, but to the possessors of it themselves an unbridled and headstrong impulse. He recommended, that those at the head of affairs, and all the several ranks of men in each particular state, should cultivate harmony between themselves; and that all should direct their views to the general interest of the whole. For, while they acted in concert, no king or tyrant would be sufficiently powerful against them: but discord and dissension gave every advantage to those who might plot against them; as the party worsted in a domestic dispute generally join themselves with foreigners, rather than submit to a countryman of their own. He then exhorted them, as the arms of others had procured their liberty, and the good faith of foreigners had restored it to them, to apply now their own diligent care to the watching and guarding of it; that the Roman people might perceive that those on whom they had bestowed liberty were deserving of it, and that their kindness had not been ill placed."